Dear Editor:
As a concerned long-time homeowner in Hoboken, I’ve been researching alternatives to what is happening in our city with the proposed reassessment following our recent reval. While I don’t question the need for a reval after 25 years, I do question the way the reval was handled (and as evidenced by the hundreds who showed up to contest their new assessments, I clearly am not the only one), and I do think a reassessment so closely after is going to be a disaster for many. So are there alternatives? Yes.
The mayor of Jersey City called a halt to their recent reassessment. All of the following is from a recent New York Times piece:
“There are ground-breaking initiatives, planned or underway in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh and other cities, centered on reducing or freezing property taxes for such homeowners in an effort to promote neighborhood stability, preserve character and provide a dividend of sorts to those who have stayed through years of high crime, population loss and declining property values, officials say.
“A decision to reduce property taxes can be risky because such levies account for at least 50 percent of operating budgets in most American cities and sometimes provide as much as 80 percent of a city’s revenue.
“But even Detroit, where a declining tax base has been at the core of the bankrupt city’s troubles, recently announced plans to cut property tax rates. Last month, Mike Duggan, Detroit’s new mayor, said property taxes would be cut by up to 20 percent to levels that more accurately represent the value of homes in the city. The reduction could cost Detroit as much as $15 million annually in revenue.
“Property values are increasing exponentially, and longtime homeowners are victims of the success story,” said Stephen J. Murphy, a city councilor in Boston who co-introduced legislation allowing residents who have owned homes for more than 10 years and whose property taxes have increased by 10 percent or more to defer property tax payments until they sell their home. The bill, approved by the City Council, is pending the approval of the state legislature. The first, the Homestead Exemption, allows most homeowners to reduce the assessed value of their house by $30,000 for tax purposes, while a second law, called Gentrification Protection or LOOP, short for Longtime Owner Occupants Program, is more narrowly focused on protecting homeowners from increases to their property tax bills because of gentrification.
“The program generally allows homeowners who have lived in homes for 10 years or more and whose household income is less than about $110,000 annually to cap and freeze their assessments for 10 years if the assessments increased by 300 percent or more as part of the city’s new property tax formula.
Mark Squilla, a Phildelphia council member, said it had been common in his district for home assessments to surge by as much as 10 times in a single year. “Gentrification is a great thing. But we have to keep a handle on it.”
Caroline Leavitt